When Rizal’s Love Was Forced to Marry Another….

With that in mind I’d like to share a new story I just learned from a book by Ambeth Ocampo about the wedding day of Jose Rizal’s long love Leonor Rivera.

They hid their love for eleven years, and kept correspondence during Rizal’s many trips.

Her mother eventually caught on and, disapproving, hid Rizal’s letters from her. Believing that he no longer loved her she was eventually convinced (in Ocampo’s opinion “forced”) to marry Henry Kipping, one of the engineers of the Manila-Dagupan Railway (Ferrocarril de Manila).

On her wedding day to Kipping Leonor did something so sad and beautiful I’m surprised there isn’t more art inspired by it….

“According to tradition, Leonor was forced to marry a man she did not love, an English engineer working on the Manila-Dagupan railway. As a final act of homage to her lover and defiance toward her overbearing mother, Leonor gathered all of Rizal’s letters, burned them, collected the ashes and carefully sewed these into the hem of her gown. As she walked down the church aisle she felt the remains of a lost love crumbling at her dainty little feet…”
[Ambeth Ocampo, The Rizal Lectures]